Harry Potter & the Pensieve
by Moxxia
Summary: Harry Potter receives the Pensieve that had once belonged to the legendary Dumbledore along with some preserved memories. Whose memories are they, and, what if Harry used it to cast some of his most frightening memories aside and his daughter, Lily, was unfortunate enough to show interest in the Pensieve?
1. The Pensieve

Chapter 1 – The Pensieve

Harry was on standby awaiting further instruction from his department on which dark wizard had recently been sighted so that he may continue his duties as an Auror, which was why he was at home. His sons Albus and James were both attending Hogwarts, James in his third year and Albus in his second. His daughter on the other hand, Lily Luna Potter, was attending a regular primary school not too far away from home and she was in her final year. His wife, Ginny was at home with him, sitting with him at the kitchen table as they ate breakfast.

Harry was reading a copy of the _Daily Prophet_ propped up against a milk jug as he sat opposite Ginny, scanning for anything unusual that may grab his attention such as even a few jinxes occurring in London. After Voldemort and his followers had been obliterated, it appeared that every year got harder for an Auror to get along, which was a good thing, but at the same time, Harry was struggling to find much work which was gradually becoming a bad thing.

'Nothing,' Harry muttered to Ginny as he folded the newspaper and laid it on the chair beside him. Ginny frowned and looked down at her plate of bacon, beans, egg and sausages.

Harry finished his breakfast and checked his watch. 'I better go get Lily up, she's got school in about an hour,' Harry said as he got to his feet from the table, as he done so, somebody rapped on their door rather loudly making Ginny drop her fork onto her plate.

'I'll get Lily ready Harry; get the door though would you?' Ginny said as he put her fork back neatly on the side of her plate and got to her feet to head for the stairs to Lily's bedroom.

Harry followed her out of the kitchen to the corridor where they parted; Ginny creaked up the stairs with her fluffy red slippers as Harry went down the carpeted hallway to answer the front door which had been rapped again impatiently as he approached it. Through the semi-circle glass, Harry could make out the disfigured silhouette of what looked like a large item.

His hand met the handle and he swung the door open, one hand on his wand in his back pocket.

(You never know)

Upon opening the door to let the early spring sunlight embrace his jeans and some of the hallway behind him, his eyes fell down upon a hunched man who was staring down at the welcome carpet at his feet. The man was looking extremely exhausted, his cheeks were puffy and red, his breathing was heavy and fast and it was probably because of the huge, oddly shaped brown wrapped package he was heaving on his back.

'Ha-Harry Pot-Potter?' the man asked Harry with great difficulty without looking up at him.

'Er,' Harry began.

'Never mind that, help me with this,' the man breathed as he bent lower and Harry helped the man carefully carry the package off his back and to ground level in his hallway.

'Phew!' the man said in a very relieved voice as he fell with one arm out onto Harry's hallway wall.

Harry took the time to examine the odd shape of the package the man and he had just brought into the hallway. There was no note and the package was shaped like a small fountain, it was certainly heavy enough to be one. Though, something gave Harry the idea that it was not a fountain due to the oddly shaped tower protruding from the back of it about the size of a small mirror which was also carefully wrapped in brown packaging.

The man let out one last puff of air and leant against the wall looking at Harry with his beady black eyes. Harry noticed the man's eyes scan his forehead before he spoke. 'Yes, you're Harry alright,' he muttered almost to himself.

There was a small moment of silence with sound only coming from upstairs with Lily's wild yawning. 'Er, sorry – what is this?' Harry asked the man as he glanced at the item.

'Pensieve Mr Potter,' the man said rather proudly as he bounced back on fourth on the balls of his feet.

'A Pensieve?' Harry asked in mild disbelief as his fingertips felt the corners of the packaging that crinkled upon his touch. He knew what a Pensieve was; he had come across one during his time at Hogwarts, where he had once discovered the dark memories of Professor Snape and the sentencing of Barty Crouch Jr. Harry turned his eyes back to the man who was back to leaning on the wall, but looking much more composed. 'But who would send me a Pensieve?'

The man frowned and set his eyes down at the Pensieve. 'I was not told,' he said. His eyes brightened and he looked back up at Harry smiling. 'Anyway, absolute pleasure to meet you Mr Potter,' he said, taking Harry's hand and shaking it energetically, beaming at Harry's scar.


	2. Hermione's Gift

Chapter 2 – Hermione's Gift

After the man had left Harry and the Pensieve in the hallway, Harry heaved the pensieve into his work room (the attic). None of his dark detectors had shown any signs of triggering, though he still did not trust the gift. Harry could not imagine who would send him a pensieve.

After Ginny had left to take Lily to school, Harry went back up to the attic to examine the unopened package. Eventually, his curiosity had got the better of him, and, grinning, Harry torn open the several layers of brown packaging to bring to his vision a beautiful Pensieve.

Harry stood there for a moment, eying up its thick marble leg that expanded after a meter to reveal a deep, wide bowl of, to Harry's astonishment –

'Memories?'

Harry approached the Pensieve and swung open its tower, up opened four separate mirrors, on one of them, a long parchment. He tore the parchment off eagerly, readjusting his glasses and lowering the parchment so he could read the writing on it from the light of the silvery memories swirling within the Pensieve. He recognised it as Hermione's neat handwriting.

 _Dear Harry,_

 _I hope you and Ginny are well, sorry for not sending you any notice by owl to this package but I have been very busy here at Hogwarts and just could not find any time. Anyway, as I am sure you already know, this is the Pensieve that you once spoke of to me and Ron. I found it lying about in Dumbledore's old office and I did not really need it._

Harry gazed back down at the Pensieve, now in more awe it its presence knowing that it was once Dumbledore's. Then he continued to read Hermione's letter.

 _I thought that you would like it because I found some vials containing memories along with it that should be in the compartment below its bowl, I think that is where I put them. There are not too many, but if I find anymore then I will send them too! Give my greetings to Lily and Ginny will you? I hope it is useful._

 _Love,_

 _Hermione._

Harry read the letter twice then folded it and put it aside. Knowing now that the gift was from Hermione, he was very excited to have a Pensieve in his possession, especially because of the memories he could inspect.

With no hesitation, Harry got to his knees and fumbled blindly at the leg of the Pensieve until his fingers grasped a handle which he pulled. He could not see inside the compartment, it was too dark, so he pulled his wand out from his back pocket.

' _Lumos,'_ he muttered as silver light escaped the tip of his wand instantly giving him the vision he needed.

His eyes swept up and down the small hole, there were about four small vials floating magically, lightly clinking together occasionally. Inside them, transparent liquid and/or silvery light swirling like a calm storm inside a glass tube. They were all corked tightly. Harry stared at them for a moment, wondering whether it was wrong of him to invade the memories of anonymous donators. Though it was likely these memories belonged to Dumbledore, and Harry was sure that if Dumbledore was still alive, he would not at all mind if Harry entered them, Harry felt a leap of guilt as he grasped one at random and held it up to his eyes, watching it swirl with building temptation. If these were Dumbledore's memories, would it be disrespect to his memory to invade them?

 _Yes, it would be,_ Harry thought to himself as he put the vial back in the compartment and shut it with a snap.

Harry decided to himself that he would discuss this with Ginny when she returned to see if she thought that he should or should not use the Pensieve to enter those four memories Hermione had sent him.

Whilst he waited for Ginny to come back, Harry went back to the living room and wrote a letter back to Hermione.

 _Dear Hermione,_

 _Thanks for the Pensieve, not really so keen on using it though._

Harry bit his lip and rubbed his forehead thoughtfully. _Does that sound ungrateful?_ He questioned himself, but then continued knowing that he would rightfully explain himself.

 _Those four memories you sent me could be anyone's, it is likely that they were Dumbledore's and I do not really want to invade the memories of a man we all deeply respect, I know you will understand. But I can use the Pensieve for other purposes, not only for the memories of others, so really Hermione thank you very much for sending it to me._

 _And of course, I'll let Ginny and Lily know you said hi. Lily's going to be your student next year, she's growing up so fast. Make sure Albus and James studying well, thanks again._

 _From Harry._

Content with his letter, Harry attached it to Ginny's owl (Fluttergryff) and watched it swoop out of the living room window over his neighbours roof and out of sight.


	3. Hermione's Reply

Chapter 3 – Hermione's Reply

When Ginny returned shortly after Harry had watched Fluttergryff disappear with his reply to Hermione attached to his leg, he left the living room and went to her as he heard the door open.

'Ginny,' Harry said as she took her boots off and crept inside.

'What's up honey?'

She went past Harry and into the kitchen where she flicked her wand and let the dishes wash themselves impressively. She turned back to Harry as he followed her down the hallway and stood between the kitchen and the hallway.

'Hermione sent me Dumbledore's Pensieve,' Harry said as Ginny's eyes widened in surprised.

'Wow ... you going to use it?' Ginny asked him as she cast a charm and let the clean dishes levitate and carefully organise themselves neatly on the kitchen side.

Harry ran his fingers through his messy black hair; his eyes fell from Ginny's to the kitchen floor.

'Not sure. I mean, I can use it with my own memories, that should be quite useful,' Harry said thoughtfully. His eyes went back up to Ginny's who were staring at his eagerly. 'But Hermione found some memories with it; I think they might be Dumbledore's.'

'Ah,' Ginny frowned, and sat on the on the clear wooden surface beside the sink with her head resting on her hand.

'Harry?' called a sudden familiar voice making both of them jump.

Harry turned around and looked at where he heard the voice come from, on entering the living room with Ginny by his side, his heart settled as he saw Hermione smiling up at them both with her head warmly levitating in the fire like how Sirius used to communicate with him.

'Oh hi, could've knocked!' Ginny said jokily as she smiled back at Hermione as she and Harry sat down together on the sofa and looked at Hermione.

'Did you get my letter already?' Harry asked. 'I only sent it a few minutes ago,' Harry let out a laugh of disbelief.

Hermione giggled. 'No…no, er – I know what is probably in the letter though. Don't want to use those memories, right?' Hermione asked Harry who was still impressed by Hermione's intellect despite knowing her most of his life.

'Er,' Harry begun.

'Don't be,' Hermione continued. 'Sorry I couldn't find out whose memories they were before I sent them to you, I know it was rather reckless,' Hermione looked down onto the ash she was protruding from as though looking at the ground nervously.

'So you know whose memories they are now then?' Ginny asked Hermione before Harry could.

Hermione looked up again, her eyes focused on Harry.

'Well, the Pensieve wasn't found by me, it was actually found by a fellow teacher who is now working as potions. He is new, so he was cleaning out his office, keep in mind it was Snape's old office, Harry, and he came across the Pensieve upon his cleansing.'

'So how'd you find it in Dumbledore's office? – er – your office I mean,' Harry asked Hermione eagerly.

'Well Julie – argh – Profess – no – well, the new potions teacher…she apparently moved it up to my office without me knowing. I must have been out when she done it. Anyway, Harry the point is, I found out whose memories those in the vials likely are, giving you all the reason…even the right, to look into them if you wanted to without feeling bad.'

Harry leant forward on the sofa and looked at Hermione's floating head interestedly.

'They were in Snape's office too, apparently, the memories. They were beside the Pensieve. As I remember, you – er- went into Snape's memories once after your private lessons and found he had memories about James, about your mother too and your Godfather. I think that his memories may offer more than just that one memory you saw. I think that it is not entirely an invasion of Snape's privacy if you were looking into them…if they are his…to try and get to see your parents,' Hermione finished.

Ginny was clutching Harry's hand and Harry was looking at the carpet. Harry only remembered one memory of Snape's. Ever since he had seen that, he could not get that knowledge of his father especially, out of his mind; Even though he had been told on different occasions that his father was not truly like that, and that he had changed.

'Up to you,' Hermione said, 'listen, I've really got to go. I'm sorry, see you Harry, Ginny,' and then a few hundred miniature sparks burst where her head once were, dying on the ashes were they were born.


	4. The First Memory

Chapter Four – The First Memory

It had been a few days since Hermione had informed Harry about how she came about the Pensieve and the memories with it. Harry had decided that he wanted to know more about his father, his mother and Sirius, even if it meant that he had to follow Snape get abused within them which was truly a horrible sight. He extracted ghostly vial at random and uncorked it, letting a tail of small silver light wiggle out of the top, took a deep breath and let the mysterious substance float out of the vial into the bowl, instantly colliding with the watery, gas-like substance in the Pensieve and spreading violently in a long swirl. Without further hesitation, in case he changed his mind, Harry made sure his door was shut and then sunk his head into the active Pensieve.

Immediately, he felt as though the weight from his body was growing fainter. Then, he fell, and continued to fall for another thirty seconds or more down a black and white mess. After another moment of falling down what felt like a room splattered with a sickly black and white paint, Harry's feet met the stone floor of the Great Hall.

At first, Harry looked around, admiring the brilliance of the Great Hall in whatever time period it actually was. The four house tables were laid out with students eating merrily on all of them from top to bottom. Floating a few metres above the tables were a few dozen cackling jack o' lanterns and in the starry night sky that was the Great Hall ceiling, a lone Headless Horsemen rode on a Thestral, he appeared to be snatching at the laughing jack o' lanterns who always floated merely inches away from his ghostly grip.

 _It must be Halloween,_ Harry thought to himself as he tore his eyes from the Headless Horsemen's failed attempts to regain some sort of head to the many students walking up and down the tables and sitting among their friends as they ate. It was quite hard to distinguish whose memory this was. Harry went up and down the Slytherin table, walking through several students in the process, and could not seem to find anybody greasy haired enough to pass for Snape.

He went over and scanned the Gryffindor table three times; he could not find Sirius, his father, Lupin or even Peter. He decided to visit the staff table and discovered Dumbledore sitting amongst it. His beard as long and silvery as ever, his presence, despite it being the past, still planting a significant awe in Harry's heart.

 _Is this Dumbledore's memory?_ Harry asked himself curiously as a feeling of guilt stabbed his stomach.

Dumbledore sat there staring right through Harry's translucent form at his students for a few more minutes, before he too rose to his feet, which were almost concealed by his magnificent robe. At this, all the noise died and all attention, staff, students and Harry, was now on their Headmaster, Dumbledore.

'Now that you are all well fed,' Dumbledore said, his voice as calm as Harry had known it to be, 'I would like to give a word of warning,' Dumbledore continued as he went from his chair to the very front of the Great Hall behind a small stand so that every student could see him more clearly. Though his voice was steady, Harry could tell from the look on Dumbledore's face that he was being completely serious, and was not at all talking lightly of whatever warning this may be.

'As I am sure you are all aware, as I know information passes through this castle exceptionally quick, three house elves were discovered by a student on the Quidditch field earlier this morning, dead.'

Immediately, noise broke out through the Great Hall as though this news was in fact new to all of the students. Harry's eyes raced across the tables, hoping to see or hear something familiar, anything so that he felt as though he was not intruding on one of Dumbledore's memories, then his eye caught somebody, somebody at the Slytherin table that made his heart, though it was ghostly, clench.

At the Slytherin table, a very pale faced, handsome boy no older than fifteen, sat, looking as though he had not a single interest at all in what Dumbledore had just said, as though the information had not been new to him at all.

Harry recognised him immediately as non-other than Tom Riddle. Or in other words, Lord Voldemort, but this was before he was known by that name, this was when he was a student, like Harry once was.

Harry had only recognised him amongst the hundreds of students as he was not joining in with the rest of the table when they had all twisted and turned to talk to their neighbours about the dreadful news Dumbledore had just announced. He sat there, head pressed against his cheek, staring at Dumbledore, almost in fact, staring at Harry, with his cold, and piercing eyes.

Dumbledore raised his hands for silence, and the noise slowly fell and all eyes were again upon him.

'It has come as an incredible shock to me that you all appeared to have just found out about this tragedy, almost as shocking as finding out about the tragedy myself. Anyway, I wish to not spoil your Halloween night, so I must address this word of warning before I linger on further negativity,' Dumbledore readjusted his half-moon spectacles and scanned the Great Hall.

'I shall be as brief as I can be. Do not, I repeat, do not under any circumstances visit the Quidditch field for the rest of the week. It needs to be inspected by me and my colleagues along with some members of the Ministry before becoming of use again.'

'What about Quidditch next week?' a faint voice shouted from the back of what appeared to be the Hufflepuff table. An eager silence followed the Hufflepuff student's question.

Dumbledore smiled, 'If in the event of discovering dark magic lingering in the field, we shall have to cancel any Quidditch until the field has been cleansed.'

The Great Hall broke out again in roars of disagreement; Harry kept his eyes on Tom, who looked rather composed.

Dumbledore raised his arms again for silence, it took longer than last time, but eventually the hall fell silent once more.

'It is, of course, in our greatest interest in keeping you all as safe as we can, now, please, return to your dormitory's.'

Harry begun to follow Tom as he left the hall with the ocean of retreating, babbling students, Tom slipped from the crowd, and after what felt like six or seven turns, Tom appeared to slip away from sight of everyone, but Harry, who of course, was invisible.

It was when Harry was following Tom down the grassy field to the Quidditch pitch in the darkening Halloween night, with Tom Riddle a few paces ahead of him, that he realised, this memory must have been non-others than Lord Voldemort's as the memory was not trying to pull him away to somebody else.

Tom kept looking back, both his hands in his robe pockets as he went hastily into the Quidditch field, where Harry saw something that, even though he knew it was the past, made his heart sink.

Where the three Quidditch posts stood, hung three pale house elves, they were each hung from different goal posts, Harry could see three small, dark pools of blood that had soaked into the sand at the ground of the goalposts. Tom stationed himself at the foot of the three goal posts, hands still in his pockets, and stared up at the three dead house elves as Harry felt hatred surge into his false bloodstream at the sight of Tom Riddle witnessing what was most likely, his doing.

Then, he felt as though he was flying upwards as his feet rooted to the grass. Then, he returned to his original body and was staring at himself in the Pensieve's reflection, the memory of Tom Riddle's must have expired.

 _Why was this memory in Hogwarts, and why on earth was it a memory that Voldemort had preserved,_ Harry thought to himself as he shut the Pensieve and left the room feeling disgusted at what he had saw.


	5. Ron Visits

Chapter Five – Ron Visits

It had been an hour or two after Harry had returned to the world of the living from the sickening memory he had lived in. The traumatising image of three house elves, hanging from the Quidditch goalposts, absent of all healthy colours in their small bodies, eyes rolled back and hung over their own blood soaked in the sand that Harry vividly remembered leaking from their open mouths.

Harry sat with Ginny on the sofa facing the fire; Ginny was watching holding a copy of the _Quibbler_ diagonally and was trying to create enough pressure on her quill to scribble something on the magazines paper.

Harry never told her what he had seen in the Pensieve, she never asked, but if she did, he would not tell her, not right now anyway, with the disturbing images hanging in his mind.

'Ron's coming,' Ginny suddenly said, breaking Harry's concentration on the beautiful orange flames of the fire. She turned the magazine back to an ordinary position and begun to flick through some of the pages.

'Ron?' Harry asked Ginny, his spirits rising slightly.

'Mhm,' she looked up at the grandfather clock above the fireplace, 'should be in a moment, actually.'

And then at that very moment, the flames Harry was concentrating on howled briefly and turned a emerald green. The fireplace then coughed out ash as a tall man with very bright red hair emerged, his clothes blackened around the elbow and knee areas from the method of transportation.

'Ron!' Harry said, rising to his feet and giving him a man-hug.

'Harry, Ginny,' Ron said, separating from Harry and walking over to the kitchen table to sit.

'Sorry,' Ron said as his ears went a faint red upon witnessing the mess he left on their living room surface with the ashes.

'Don't be silly,' Ginny said as she put the _Quibbler_ aside on the sofa. With one flick of her wand, the ashes all gathered as though brushed up, and then dropped back into the flames which fell and then rose wildly upon impact. 'Firewhisky, Ron?'

'Love one,' Ron replied as he put his coat over a chair and sat on it, brushing some of the ash out of his hair, Harry sitting opposite him.

Ginny put her wand away and searched through the cupboards for the Firewhisky.

'I think I'd love one too,' Harry called from the table to Ginny cheekily.

'Pfft!' Ginny retorted.

Ron laughed at Ginny's reaction.

Ginny took two silver goblets from the cupboards along with an orange, swirling bottle of Firewhisky. She set the goblets and living Firewhisky between Harry and Ron on the table; she then pulled up a chair beside Harry and smiled at Ron.

'How are things at the ministry Ron?' Harry asked Ron as he uncorked the bottle of Firewhisky and poured Ron and himself a goblet each.

'Thanks,' Ron said as he took a brimming goblet of Firewhisky from Harry.

Ginny and Harry listened as they shared a goblet of Firewhisky. Ron went into a story about a witch who discovered a new spell that the ministry are debating whether it should be restricted or not.

'So it basically – well – we think – any area which could have been affected by an unforgivable curse or any other strong piece of magic,' Ron said, helping himself to another goblet of Firewhisky, ignoring Ginny's reproachful gaze, 'can be – er – made impossible to discover.'

Harry handed Ginny the rest of his Firewhisky and was left with a confused expression.

'Ron, when you say impossible to discover, what do you mean?' Harry asked.

Ron took a swig from his goblet and set it back down on the table, staring at the bottle of half-empty Firewhisky eagerly, swishing and sloshing in its glass bottle invitingly to Ron, which Ginny was holding away from his reach. Then he turned his attention to Harry.

'Hermione told me that when somebody does an unforgivable curse, or something along similar proportion, then the dark affects actually hang around in the air, or ground,' Ron answered Harry, he sounded as though he had rehearsed his reply as though he read it from a book.

'So – so do you just cast the curse into the sky or something?' Ginny asked, looking rather concerned.

Ron shrugged and finished his Firewhisky, 'no idea, nobody will tell me much about it, only what it does.'

'Did the witch tell the ministry the incantation for the spell?'

'Must have done,' Ron replied, 'but I have no idea.'

Ron stayed at the Potter residence for a couple of more hours where he and Harry played a few games of wizards chess, discussed Quidditch and continued to the discuss the new spell the witch had discovered throughout almost the entire two hour period.

Ginny had left shortly after Ron, to pick up Lily from school, leaving Harry alone again.

Harry did not dare bring up what he had saw in the Pensieve, when Ron had asked him about the Pensieve Hermione had given him, he just said he never used it yet, and was quick to get off the topic back to the spell or Quidditch. He did not want to bring anything up that might bring worry or sadness.

Ron left again to a mouth of emerald flames, and Harry sat alone with his thoughts, staring into the emerald flames that sunk into a deeper, fierce orange.


	6. Lily's Results

Chapter Six - Lily's Results

Ginny returned with Lily about half an hour after Ron had left and they were both coming through the hallway to the kitchen where Harry stood, looking out from the kitchen window at a garden gnome trying to uproot a rosebush, from his painful screeches, Harry could tell he was failing to understand they had thorns that did not take kindly to flesh.

'Daddy!' Lily called wildly to Harry as she ran from the dark hallway and hugged her father's leg.

Harry picked her up and swung her in a small circle as she giggled.

'Had a good day?' Harry asked Lily as he put her but down on her feet.

Ginny came into the kitchen with and had a opened envelope held in her hand, she was smiling at Harry.

'Dad – dad I passed – I passed!'

'She passed her year six exams, dad!' Ginny said handing Harry the envelope from her hand which he opened hastily as Lily stared up at him beaming wildly.

 _Hopeheart Academy of London_

 _S.A.T (Standard Assessment Tests) Results_

 _5-(Outstanding)_

 _4-(Exceeding Expectations)_

 _3-(Average)_

 _2-(Poor)_

 _1-(Very Poor)_

 **English – 5**

 **Math – 4**

 **Science – 5**

Harry smiled as he reread the results, folded them back into the letter and gave it to Lily.

'Better than both your brothers,' Harry said as Lily hopped on her feet. 'Want to give me English lessons?' Harry asked Lily as she giggled some more.

'This calls for a celebration!' Ginny called from behind an open cupboard. She emerged holding Lily's favourite magical sweets…

'Tongue Toners!' Lily cried as Ginny put them on the table, Lily ripped open a few packets and chewed on them.

Tongue Toners were a type of sweet that changed the colour of the consumers tongue depending on their current emotion.

Ginny joined Lily at the table where they discussed her results and how well she was going to do at Hogwarts; both of their tongues were turning a happy yellow.

Harry, not thinking, sat down with them and helped himself to a couple of the pill sized sweets that tasted very powdery.

About five minutes later when Lily had ran upstairs with the envelope hugged tightly to her chest, Ginny turned and shot Harry a penetrating look.

'What's wrong?' Ginny asked Harry.

'What? Nothing,' Harry responded instantly.

'Then why is your tongue blue?'

Harry could not think of an answer, he just sat staring into Ginny's beautiful brown eyes. He then decided to tell Ginny the truth, knowing she would find out somehow sooner or later anyway.

'The Pensieve,' Harry said, becoming interested in his hands, 'I used it and – er – I saw,' he looked from the hallway up the stairs to make sure Lily was not eavesdropping. 'I saw some – some house elves.'

'You saw house elves?' Ginny asked, as though it was not enough.

'Well yea but they were dead,' Harry brought his voice down at the sound of creaking footsteps overhead before he continued, 'And Voldemort was the one who done it, because in the memory – the memory – it was his, it was Voldemorts memory.'

Ginny said nothing for a moment; she merely looked down at the wood of the table, biting her lip.

'One of Voldemort's memories…but-'

'-I know, I don't really understand it either – but somehow, somehow one of his memories and maybe more, are upstairs in that Pensieve.'

Ginny and Harry sat at the table for another thirty minutes or so, Harry had went over what he had saw in the memory twice and Ginny was going pale. Then, the loud, fast creaking of the stairs came to life as Lily came dashing down, her tongue was black and blue, which according to the package for the Tongue Toners meant they were thinking of death and/or had just witnessed it. She was horribly pale, tears were swelling and streaking down her face and she was shaking wildly in Ginny's arms as Ginny tried to comfort her and ask what was wrong.

'E-e-elf t-they w-w-were d-de-dead,' Lily snivelled as she buried her face into Ginny's chest.

Ginny and Harry exchanged mortified looks. Harry bound up the stairs with no words to the attic where the Pensieve was. A luminous, beautiful blue glowed out from the mouth of the door, and to Harry's greatest fear, upon entering the room, he discovered that the Pensieve stood, open and the memory that Lily had surely nosed in on innocently, was swirling violently in the bowl of the Pensieve.


End file.
